~ Food, Culture and Friends

Category Archives: Jamaica

Color, music, spices, Marley, friends, heat, sardines, bush tea, reggae, fish, coconuts, tradition, family and prayers, are just a few of my favorite things that remind me of Jamaica in my month of cooking and culture. One more place to fill my “suitcase” with recipes and memories. Thank you Jamaica for your sunny disposition and happy songs. Jamaica the land flowing freely with ya mon-ism’s. Sweet, sweet place-I love you Jamaica, with your hospitality that rivals any southern gent or gal. I do not have to go there (read “about this blog”), to know that after a month of cooking and reading about the culture, Jamaica’s ways are all-embracing. When I do get there, I know it will be the kind of place I can call home-a welcome mat and open arms pulling me in and never letting me go. Filling me with good things.

Come to Jamaica-this will be my “don’t worry, be happy” place. I’m there with my empty suitcase and straw hat-so when I come back, my suitcase is fattened with good, happy, and sunny memories.

Ya mon, Jamaica -you reggae.

Click Jamaican Recipes link on right for Jerk Chicken recipe.

Upcoming culture and cooking ventures: Plantation Cooking and Culture; Germany for Oktoberfest and I will close out the year with France in November.

Like this:

Jamaicans love their fish, escoveitched. It’s a vinegary, carrot, onion bath over a fried piece of fish. Yes, I was skeptical too, but this was amazing. Fish are abundant everywhere in Jamaica, so this is just one of the many ways to make fried fish pop.

The vinegar mixture consisted of vinegar, peppercorns, onion, carrots, a pinch of salt and a touch of sugar -add a scotch bonnet if you want that extra kick. I added red pepper flakes to my vinegar. Boil it real well and pour it over fish that has been lightly dusted with flour and fried. Have some sweet fried plantains on the side with a cut up fresh garden tomato and you will have a nice Jamaican summer supper.

Son and Mom Dialogue

Me: “did you catch any fish?”

Son: “no”

Me: “But you fished for hours, Why?”

Son: “because, when you almost catch one, you want to keep trying”

The understanding is in this quote:

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. –John Buchan

Have you ever wondered how a certain food came about? How did it make its migration to a certain place? Pizza had to come from somewhere and french fries-are they really from France?

When the African slave trade began in Jamaica in the early 1600’s, some of the foods that the West Africans introduced included plantains, callaloo (looks and tastes like spinach), breadfruit and ackee (tree fruit). Sometime around the 1800’s, after the abolishment of slavery, the Chinese and Indians were brought to the island as indentured laborers and in turn brought their culinary influences like curries and bok choy.

Last night I prepared two very different tasting dishes: Shrimp Florentine and Orange and Honey Chicken from the cookbook The Real Taste of Jamaica by Enid Donaldson and a link to the exact recipe I found online:

I felt reasonably safe, stretched out on the floor, and lay quite still.

It didn’t seem to be summer any more”

-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar.

The dog days of summer-the most sultry time of the year. July’s weather is so hot right now, with 101 degree temp outside and the loft inside hovering at 80. If I stay completely still, I can actually feel cooler.

I intentionally picked July to cook Jamaican food fare. I could not have picked a hotter month or time. I can imagine Jamaican summer nights cooking over a barbecue pit with my Harry Belafonte blaring and the jerk chicken doing its thing. Oh mon, I don’t have to pretend the Jamaican heat at all. It’s like intolerable closeness to the sun and heat.

But enough talk about smokin’ hot, sweltering like temperatures. Let’s talk food. I tried to add a component of breakfast and sweetness for a more complete Jamaican picture. Notice the British and Spanish influences in the menu. Both countries ruled the island for over five centuries. Interestingly, Jamaica’s food influences make up many countries: Africa (salted fish, mackerel and bananas); English (bush teas); India and China (think curries and bok choy). Much more later on food influences.

Coconut Coconut Coconut Coconut Coconut woman is calling out And everyday you can hear her shout Coconut woman is calling out And everyday you can hear her shout Get your coconut water, four for five Man it’s good for your daughter, four for five Coco got a lotta iron, four for five Make you strong like a lion, four for five

A lady tell me the other day No one can take her sweet man away I ask her what was the mystery She say coconut water and rice curry

You can serve it very hot, four for five Coco got a lotta iron, four for five Make you strong like a lion, four for five

Coconut woman says you’ll agree coconut make very nice candy The thing that’s best if you’re feelin’ glum Is coconut water with a little rum It could make you very tipsy, four for five Make you feel like a gypsy, four for five Coco got a lotta iron, four for five Make you strong like a lion, four for five

Like this:

I am…crazy-busy looking into new countries so that I can cook and blog about the international foods and flavors -AND – cause I love this crazy process it’s time to stir the pot, raise the temperature and clean the dirty dishes again.

After a year of taking a cooking/blog writing breather, I find myself wanting to do more than dabble in this recipe or that cookbook. It has not been all spaghetti and tacos-although those two food items are pretty satisfying and with a bit of motivation an artistic expression of culinary skills- think fresh tomato sauce from just picked tomatoes or fish tacos.Yea, I thought so.

I pulled out of the recipe box a few foods that were noteworthy this past year: Lasagna; salmon and risotto; tortilla soup; enchiladas; chicken salad; artichoke dip; meatloaf; chicken cheddar soup.

So here’s the deal, it’s back to cooking internationally and blogging about the culture and food. I will start with Jamaica this summer, followed by Germany in October (Oktoberfest!) and end the year with fabulous French food. I just got my new cookbook on Jamaica and will be pairing it with a couple of my other international cookbooks-look for Jerk Chicken, Coconut dishes, curries, fish dishes and plantains. Let’s get started!

I leave you with a couple of lines from Bob Marley song “Smile Jamaica.”

Smile Jamaica lyrics

“Feeling now, feeling down
This feeling wouldn’t leave me alone
Then I came, the one that said
Hey Dread, fly Natty Dread

And smile (In Jamaica)
Want you to smile (In Jamaica)
Get it to together right now (In Jamaica)
Get things together right now (In Jamaica)”

I'm Kate and Finger, Fork and Knife is where I record the recipes that excite, nourish and inspire me. I focus on wholesome, high-nutrition, home-cooked food - recipes that satisfy and delight. Welcome!